Professor Edwina looked conflicted as she stood at the front of the classroom. She was the teacher of our class, but her rank put her below a significant chunk of her students. There were some mechanisms to protect teachers from reprisals and give them authority over their students, but it was never a good idea to anger future employers just because they wouldn't quiet down. I sympathized with her plight since the noise was just making my head hurt. Somehow this body of mine had very nearly recovered from losing a couple liters of blood in a day, but it was no less painful an experience as could have been expected. The gash in my side hadn't been very deep, but I had ignored it for what must have been at least half an hour. Just like in the game though, my classmates were remarkably blasé about my showing up to classes half-dead. More important to them was the news of my engagement and particularly the way that I had slighted the prince. As if it was my doing and not Mary's. I couldn't really blame her for it though. He had done everything he possibly could to bother me while I recovered. A junior inquisitor, official couriers, even a viscount had shown up at my doorstep to remark on my misfortune and how it must have been karmic in nature.

"Class, if you would kindly turn your attentions to the day's agenda, I'm sure that it would be of interest to you," Professor Edwina tried. A bit of the conversation died down, but not nearly enough to relieve the pressure on my head. It was only through Georn's efforts that finally got the rest of the class to comply.

"Thank you. Today the upperclassman have organized exhibits to show off their specializations. It is very early in the year still, but all of you will be picking a preliminary specialization by the time this week is out. Here at the royal academy we strive to provide educational experiences fitted to the talents and interest of our students, so we believe that it is important that these choices are made early. You will still be able to change your choice for another week as you try things out, but after that you will be committed to your specialization," said Professor Edwina.

Just like in the game, one of the boys in the front immediately asked a question, "Does that mean that we'll be stuck with the people in our specialization for the rest of our time here at the academy?"

In fact, it did. It was a rather blunt way of telling the player that they needed to get into the same specialization as their target, but it was also one of the few straightforward parts of the game. Every other route would become impossible after the specialization was locked in, around the halfway mark in the game, and the player would be locked into a particular storyline. If memory served, Jezbeth and Prince Phillip would be in statecraft, Georn would be in dueling, Lorn would be in accounting, and I was supposed to be in administration.

To the best of my recollection, Professor Edwina and the handful of students who rotated through questions kept exactly on script. It was slightly creepy knowing what someone would said before they said it, but the way that they took turns and didn't leave any room for anyone to interject took the cake. The bell to mark the hour and our next class rang as Professor Edwina finished her final answer. Rather than our normal second period with Matthew Klimmer, the second half of the idiotic teacher duo who hazed us into the academy, we were set free to explore. I was about to go find the administration exhibit, but some an unfriendly royal blocked me.

"I'm sure you've already received my best wishes from my subjects, but I thought that I needed to greet you in person also." Phillip slapped a hand on my shoulder on the bad side and said in an overly loud voice, "I see you're healing well! Still, better to be careful in the future, there's no telling what might happen if you keep sticking your neck out like this."

The small crowd of students who had stopped to watch made sure to keep from meeting my eyes as they followed the prince out toward the academy's courtyard where the majority of the exhibits were set up. Not a single one offered to help me make my way out or even gave me some token of pity. It wasn't surprising with Mary absent, but it stung. No amount of experience with loneliness made it any more bearable, it just made it feel more right.

***

Administration was as far from our classroom as it could've been, so I took a bit of a breather at the accounting exhibit. I hadn't met with Lorn in quite a while and it would be difficult to call on him for more capital if I ignored him for too much longer. He was also probably willing to get on the wrong side of even the prince if it meant that he ended up richer. He was reliable like that.

That I had beaten Lorn to the exhibit turned out to be thanks to Elizabeth. Her blindingly golden hair was unmistakable even from a ways away and Lorn's painfully thin figure was rare among the well-to-do students of the academy.

Elizabeth also noticed me and called out, "What's our class's gargoyle doing out here? I thought you would've gone to the administration exhibit! Don't tell me you're confident in running a barony already?" Now that I had spent a while in this world, I was starting to notice just how out of place Elizabeth was. With her status as a viscount's daughter, it was barely within the realm of propriety to skip bowing, but to initiate conversation was most certainly improper. Lorn was grimacing at the mistake, but he didn't abandon her even as the eyes of nearly everyone in the vicinity immediately focused in on her.

"Who are you to question my whereabouts?" I tested her. If it had happened once, then it was well within the realm of possibility that some other person from Earth had reincarnated. Especially if she took offense to what was honestly a tame warning, then it would be a helpful hint.

"Please forgive her, she's been spending too much time around Georn. You know how little he cares for such things, so she wasn't thinking just now," cried out Lorn. He even took the effort to force Elizabeth into a deep bow with him and looked more than a little scared. I shouldn't have been surprised that he would be quick to take action and save himself, but it did make me regret things a bit. All the effort that I had used in drawing myself up to deliver my warning was being paid back in the pain that shot up my side. Grabbing the table that I had been leaning against helped to keep my balance, but the abrupt movement just made things worse.

Lorn was horrified to see the expression on my face, more from pain than real anger, but he kept up a stream of apologies until the pain subsided back into a dull ache and I was able to relax my expression. All that time, Elizabeth was somewhere between confusion and desperate floundering as her gaze darted between Lorn and me. The people behind the accounting exhibit were also panicking, but at least they were doing so productively. They had sent someone to fetch a physician and a couple of the stronger looking boys were bracing the table so that it moved as little as possible even as I overburdened the flimsy construction.

I slowly eased myself up to stand on my own power and addressed Elizabeth, "I can forgive your rudeness this time, but it would behoove you to practice more awareness in the future." Shifting my attention to Lorn, I noted that his company might be better chosen in the future, but I made sure not to send him back into apologies.

Rather than sticking around to discuss business, I decided to leave the matter with Lorn for the future. After all the attention that we had received, discussing certain aspects of the trade wasn't exactly the safest of prospects. Neither was seeing the administration exhibit if the lack of relief provided by a careful limp was indicative of anything, but at least the walk would give me some respite from the constant reminders that things were straying farther and farther from my knowledge of the game.

I had already put a fair amount of effort into making sure that my route was closed off and Elizabeth would set her sights elsewhere. The girl was just too unpredictable. At the very least, if she really was another reincarnator, then she should be able to recognize that with the previous Baron Masler out of the picture, my redemption arc had already sailed.

***

I was happy to find that there was no such thing as a severance package in this world. Already in a dire state, my finances wouldn't have been able to take such a hit. Instead, with the staff finally replaced, expenses had gone down and I didn't need to watch my back around the old sword-carrying head butler anymore. Apparently his wife and son had also been in my employ, so I was happy to be rid of such an entrenched figure. The new staff was enthusiastic if not any less obviously walking on eggshells around me. Altogether they came to a measly nine compared to the old guard of over twenty people doing ridiculously specific sounding jobs like saddle mender and banner weaver. It was scary what sorts of waste could crop up when systems were left alone for too long.

Best of all was the news that the inquisition had apparently rooted out the last remnants of the old Masler weapons operation. Their investigation would be wrapping up within a day or two and they were quite thankful for my cooperation. It was nice to see that not all of the inquisition answered directly to the royal family, but more importantly, our operations could soon resume.

With the new carriage driver at the reins, I left Hector to settle the rest of the new staff into their roles. His vacation would be coming to an end soon, so it was better to ease him back into working than deal with them myself. We still hadn't gotten back the gaudy monstrosity that Mary and I had taken to the prince's tea party and the differences that I hadn't noticed before were painfully apparent every time we found a bump in the road. Luckily, with the Wellsworth estate being so close to the council chambers and therefore the center of the city, it wasn't long before I arrived only slightly worse for the wear.

This time, Chella wasn't there to greet me, but the single guard didn't hesitate to wave me in. Compared to some of the huge doors that the Masler estate boasted, I was thankful that the single door to the place was human-sized and wasn't difficult to push open even in my limited capacity. It was undoubtedly rude to show up unannounced, but if the lack of staff the last time I had been here was anything to go by, it would've been near impossible to get in any other way.

From the entrance I could see that the chair I had moved in the parlor hadn't been put back, but what most drew my attention was muffled sobbing coming from the second floor. The stairs were more daunting than any of the attempts on my life had been, but I started struggling up them anyway. Step with the left. Shift weight off of the right. Push up with the left knee and bring the right foot up to match. Wince. Up. Shift. Push. Wince. Match. Breathe.

Even taking things as carefully as I possible could have, it took all my willpower to keep my shaking hand from my pocket and relief. There were none of the portraits of ancestors that lined the walls of the Masler estate. Even the bookshelves that felt like the true residents of this place were absent. The hall that overlooked the stairs ended with two doors, one to the side and one at the end. The door on the end was closed, but the one on the side was ajar. The sobbing was less intense and quieting, but it was also less muffled.

I knocked on the door that was still ever so slightly open, "It's Darren."

"Go kill yourself you feckless bastard," hissed Mary, almost choking on the words as she fought against the sobs. "Just don't drag my family into it." Her knees were an angry red from kneeling and the white nightgown she was wearing, identical to the one on Chella, was stained and discolored. Her eyes were underscored by dark lines and the path from her tear ducts down past her sneering mouth was traced with red irritation. There was no sign of wetness left there in her eyes, just condemnation.

The hard wood of the floor dug into where my knee joint connected to the shin, and no matter how slowly I lowered myself to the ground, the stitches in my side still protested. I knelt there and let her words eat at me. What else was there to do?

***

The smart phone's screen was a web of cracks, almost like a flood had washed from the corner out across the plain and left behind a delta of winding rivers and tributaries. One of the larger pieces of glass was striped by rainbow bands of color. A smaller piece was flashing between white and grey. Most of the pieces though, they were just black, lightless. The plastic pink case was basically intact, but it hadn't done much good mitigating the force of being thrown rather than just dropped.

He was holding his eye, but I could still see the blood running down his face from a cut just underneath the eye and dripping onto the floor. He had grunted when it hit him, but he held back from even cursing under his breath. All that I could hear was the drip drop of his blood on the floor, the ever-present hum of the lights above me, and the beep of the monitors.

The nurse bent down to pick up the phone and inspect it, but he knew as well as I did that it was broken beyond repair. That was some satisfaction, but my anger just swelled for more destruction, more pain. He needed to understand even some fraction of what I was feeling. Some tiny proportion of the betrayal. Sure, my parents were busy, how else would they have another brat while my brain rotted away? And he hadn't even had the decency to tell me that they didn't give a damn anymore. He was the one who had told me that every family had a different way they coped. Was it coping if you forgot, or was it no longer a problem in the first place?

The drip for painkillers held me like the string on a puppet as he pushed the rest of my things out of reach. My need for destruction hadn't abated in the slightest, but now there was only a single target. He wasn't close enough for my hands to hit him, but my words at least could carry over such a trivial distance.

"Damn, just a little bit higher and maybe you'd be screaming."

He came in closer. I tensed for the blow. Maybe it would make it past the drugs and drown out my thoughts. Maybe he would be fired. I could sue him for all he was worth. Then maybe he would get evicted or his girlfriend might break up with him. Maybe he would even kill himself so I could desecrate his grave before I expired.

"I'm sorry I hid it from you. I should know how strong you are, I just didn't want you to hurt you," said the nurse.

He sat down on the hospital bed with his back turned to me. His shoulders were hunched and a shiver ran through them. The slow drip of blood continued down onto the floor, but the nurse didn't move to clean it up. His breathing was an unsteady accompaniment to the mechanical regularity of the beeping. He sat there for a long time.